Lightning Rail Trip

It began to rain heavily but Grapé found the warehouse with the red scarab painted on its wall. As M.C. and Grapé debated strategy about how to approach the potentially deadly situation, Korth simply walked up and kicked in the large (unlocked) doors. Incredibly bare except for two five-feet-tall wooden crates, the warehouse was very dark but for the illumination shining through the doors from the bright streetlamps outside. Two tall men clad in leather armor similar to what the assassins wore were in the back with their hands on the hilts of their scimitars. They differed from those the party saw previously by the bright red scarab painted on their leather pauldrons. Another pair of two people in leather armor turned around to face Korth — a Cannith mercenary and Anton. 

Grapé rushed inside and drew a large slice across Anton’s forearm in the surprise round. Korth breathed fire across them and M.C. fired arrows into the room blindly at their boss and the assassins. Korth locked weapons with Anton who said: “I’m sorry boy, it had to be done,” as he cast Cloud of Daggers. A large cloud of mithril daggers were conjured in a swirling cloud around Anton, harming anyone who was next to him. This actually killed the mercenary Anton brought with him and he and Korth locked blades. Grapé turned from the assassins and was knocked unconscious in the movement, though not before moving towards and striking Anton. Anton grimaced, “Boy I only did what my superiors told me—” but was cut off as Grapé rushed his scimitar through Anton’s neck and out of his mouth.

MC slew one of the assassins with a well-placed Guiding Shot of radiant energy and Korth severely wounded the remaining one. He deflected a killing blow and sneered “You know nothing of our family and our struggles. Damn you!” and attempted to run. Korth noticed a strange chanting from behind the door as the light creeping in from the outside streetlamps was snuffed and only darkness remained. As the assassin threw open the door he stopped as a single figure stood in the doorway, obscured by darkness. Korth and M.C. watched in horror as the shadows crept along the floor like flowing water and crawled up the assassin’s body. He let out an unearthly wail of agonizing pain as the shadow blackened and cracked any flesh it came across until it only left a desiccated husk.

The flowing shadows recoiled and retracted beneath his robe as the threw back his hood revealing a middle-aged human or half-elf with bright white hair. A permanent five-o-clock shadow and tired eyes with fractal purple irises stared at Ethelred and said, “I expected you to be taller.”

“Greetings friends,” he continued. “I am a servant of creation and I have come to ask for your aid. The fate of Eberron hangs in the balance of tragic heroes such as ourselves and I need your help. Power is shifting across the land like falling stars and time is spilling out of our hands like water.

“I serve only the Prophecy of Dragons and my master vicariously. My master is the tingling, creeping sensation you get when walking down a dark street at night. The slightest shake in the dark that makes your eyes dart, and your lungs seize in fear. The space between constellations, the dark between the stars. I am Caoven and I am a Prophet of Dragons.”

M.C. immediately distrusted Caoven seeing the dark magic he used to brutalize the escaping assassin and the seemingly evil imagery he used in his opening speech. Korth trusted him since he believes in the importance of the Draconic Prophecy because of his Dragonborn heritage so they let Caoven heal Grapé and followed him to his “abode.” He led them to a large building that had some sort of structure pointing at a 45-degree angle, but the night and rain obscured it. It actually looked like it was foreclosed a long time ago by the city with most of its windows barred over with wooden planks. Caoven simply put his hand to the large padlock and it opened and jumped into his hand. This led into a large auditorium area with empty seats (like a college lecture hall), and Caoven explained that this building used to be a lab for wizards who practiced Divination magic. It was foreclosed a long time ago under mysterious circumstances but Caoven remains here to have easy access to the telescope, which allows him to see the prophecy as written above in Siberys.

Caoven took them to a large room full of bunk-beads and offered this as a place to rest. M.C. felt very conflicted about staying with a “clearly evil” character of some sort and asked why the party should trust Caoven. This bedroom seemed to be the only room in the building with actual glass windows, and as a bright thunderbolt of lightning struck somewhere in the city bright light washed over Caoven. The party could see the humanoid shadow projected on the wall behind him, but the shadow also had large skeletal dragon wings protruding from his shoulders. “You can't trust me, but you and I are the only hope for Eberron.” Korth and Grapé immediately fell asleep from being injured in the last fight while M.C. felt too suspicious to sleep. Shortly after he started his watch he simply got up and went to find Caoven — but he couldn’t. Two hours later from the bedroom M.C. heard the front doors of the building open and shut loudly so she got up to investigate. Caoven was there with a wooden box in his hands covered in water from recently being out in the rain.

Still distrusting Caoven she interrogated him on where he had been. He simply chuckled and said that he was out “acquiring intel” from the Cannith headquarters. He explained to M.C. that the reason he brought the party to his abode was because he needed champions to prevent Cannith from completing their highly illegal and immoral plans. House Cannith was in the process of creating a new generation of Warforged for either some country or power player bent on rekindling the Last War. Destruction raged across Eberron unlike any other war and so many lives were lost, and Caoven seeks to prevent some nobles from starting that cycle of horror again. In order to create Warforged on a scale required by an army House Cannith needs to make a Genesis Forge — essentially a gargantuan eldritch machine that pumps out magical weaponry or Warforged on a huge scale. It's extremely expensive to create, and so rare components will be needed. Caoven explains that if they can find them and destroy them, they may be able to prevent Cannith from creating the Warforged. 

M.C. returned to the room and slept. Everyone awoke to Caoven walking into the room as the sun began to rise, and he told them that they will have to buy food from the tavern next-door because he does not keep any in the laboratory. After the party went on a small shopping spree for potions and the like they returned to receive the full details from Caoven. He shared what he told M.C. in the night along with a confirmation of his suspicions. House Cannith is indeed preparing to create a Genesis Forge and is acquiring many rare components to do so. The example he puts forth is that in order to power it they will need a very large and powerful Khyber Dragonshard to bind a strong elemental to the metal. According to the records the local Cannith headquarters have already sent a mercenary group to a Khyber Dragonshard powerful enough to do so: on an island off the coast of Lake Galifar. Caoven told the party that they will need to arrange their own methods of traveling to this island but he reccomended taking a Lightning Rail to the city of Passage, then arranging for some kind of boat. He gave Derek a map of the lake, so they will be able to show a sailor where to travel. Caoven shared that Dragonshards are powerful remnants of when the universe was first born and the three great progenitor dragons Siberys, Eberron and Khyber fought an eternal conflict - only for it to end with Khyber murdering Siberys. There is a different type for each dragon that does different things, for example, Khyber Dragonshards are used to bind elementals to inanimate objects to give them power. 

With that in mind the party turned their attention to the Lightning Rail. After some debate (M.C. wanting to be more pious and stay in coach) the entire party payed for first-class tickets to Passage. The city was 348 miles away, so it was going to take the train around twelve hours to arrive. It departed at 9:00 a.m. so the train would arrive around the time when dinner would be ending. The Lightning Rail was staffed by bullywug butlers, one of whom showed the party to their rooms and gave them each their room key. Korth discovered that his name was Williams and tips him a gold piece. Throughout the rest of the day Korth repeatedly tips the butler gold pieces from the party funds (with no one objecting at the time).

Korth asked Williams if he would come to his room whenever there was an official event going on so that he could be made aware. Williams says he would try but he may not be able to since there are plenty of other passengers in first-class that need attending. Over the next hour Korth and Grapé spent some time in the dining cart where the open bar was while M.C. stayed in her room meditating. First they had a drink called the “Dragon Crown,” reccomended to them by the bullywug bartender James. It was a brown cinnamon liquor in a shot glass with a thin layer of blue syrup drizzled over the top and lit aflame. It had a distinctly warm cinnamon flavor that got incredibly spicy for a moment before cooling down to a pleasant aftertaste. After this Korth asked James for the strongest drink he could provide. James thus made a shot of “Demogorgon’s Howl” a drink made with 50 percent alcoholic content whiskey and small bits of purple-salt-looking crystals which were sprinkled inside the drink and on the rim of the glass. It was a really hardcore drink that had an incredibly wild boom of bitter saltiness overshadowed by the sheer amount of alcohol in the drink. Korth and Grapé continued to drink over the course of the day (against Jame’s recommendations).

The next morning, Williams returned to Korth’s room to let him know that breakfast was being served. And so the three of them went to have breakfast. In the large cart where food was being served there were large metal trays above small bunsen burners to keep the food warm. Inside were huge piles of scrambled eggs, bacon, little pancakes and hashbrowns. Next to that was a similar setup where a bunch of finger foods were available all the time (pita chips, little cucumber sandwiches, chicken nuggets covered in sesame seeds etc). When M.C. made a raucous by sticking her hand in the bacon pot and making racist remarks to the bullywug servers, Korth and Grapé dragged her back to her room so they could keep drinking. Williams returned a few hours later to let them know that lunch was being served and a shuffleboard tournament was starting soon. Once they had gotten some chicken stew, macaroni and cheese, and rolls they asked Williams about the events going on in the train. He told them that besides the shuffleboard tournament that they had missed there was a Slam Poetry event going at 7:00 p.m., so all three members spent the next six or seven hours drinking from the bar, staring out at the Aundarian countryside and preparing their very best poetry. Williams returned once sunset was beginning to start to let them know that the slam poetry event was starting soon. He took them to a cart where a small stage was set up next to a wall with magical stones embedded in the apolstry to project the speaker's voice loud across the cart. The first person to go was a bald man in a robe with a wooden box which he cranked and sung: 

On a cold winter morning, in the time before the light,
In flames of death's eternal reign we ride towards the fight,
When the darkness has fallen down, and the times are tough all right,
The sound of evil laughter falls around the world tonight.

Then Korth got up on the stage and recited a poem about the new friendship he has found in Williams which got a lot of applause. M.C. tried to perform a psuedo-rap that simply devolved into trying to convert the crowd to the Silver Flame which ended up getting her booed off stage. Grapé just spoke random words in a poem-like fashion because he was so drunk on Demogorgon’s Howls and ended his performance by yelling “Jared from Subway! There’s explosives tied to the outside of the train! Eat fresh!” while he was tackled by a House Orien guard in white trimmed leather armor. The crowd panicked, and as Grapé was getting arrested Korth had to hold M.C. back from drunkenly smiting the guard. Another guard returned shortly after assuring everyone that there were no explosives on the train and that this man was just clearly shitfaced. The bullywug announcer Farendee came back on stage and told everyone to either cheer for the wizard with the box or for Korth, and Korth got more applause so he won the prize! He was handed a cloth bag full of fifteen gold pieces.

After this Williams gathered the party together and alerted them that a sit-down dinner was being held before the train pulled into Passage. Grapé ordered short ribs with a mushroom risotto, MC ordered a brisket and Korth had a griffon roast. As the simply delicious and rich food was being devoured by the party a loud hissing sound entered the cabin and a large elemental-like creature called an invisible stalker showed itself and whispered, “Diiiiiiiie.”